January 17, 2003

The Israeli army commander in the West Bank has banned soldiers from opening fire on Palestinian vehicles unless military lives are in danger, an army magazine reported.

Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky issued the ban after several unarmed Palestinians were killed or wounded in such shootings, including one near Bethlehem last week that seriously wounded a Palestinian.

The order was read to officers and soldiers at a study day this week, the soldiers' magazine ``Bamahane'' reported in its current edition.

Col. Roni Noma, commander of a division that serves in the West Bank, also repeated a ban on confiscating Palestinian identity cards or car keys or imposing arbitrary punishment, like closing roadblocks. He also said soldiers must not bother reporters.

And of course were Arafat or any of the other terrorists to give such orders it would be on the front page of the NYTimesWashingtonPostGaurdianLATimes and would be the lead story on CNNCBSABCNBCBBC and they would all get nominated for the Nobel. And the subsequent open scoffing at the order from the terrorist groups it was aimed at would be completely ignored by those same media organizations.